


Softer than the Rain

by Senji



Category: Exiles Saga and Galactic Milieu - Julian May
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 17:43:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5465336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Senji/pseuds/Senji
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Uncle Rogi isn't the only one with memoirs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Softer than the Rain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [a_la_grecque](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_la_grecque/gifts).



> With thanks to my beta.

### 

[ PROLOGUE ]

#### 

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, EARTH

#### 

1 MARCH 2114

The woman in the Eloquent Page reminded Rogi of Ume, although with those brilliant blue eyes not too much, otherwise he would have ejected her from the shop half an hour ago to close up.

He looked up from his cataloguing for the third time in five minutes and noticed that she appeared to have made a selection.

The striking woman stopped to pet Marcel before coming up to the counter with a copy of one of Kyle's more lurid Rebel propaganda stories from the late 2070s.

"Do you want this wrapping?"

"No, thank-you Uncle Rogi, although I would appreciate a bag to keep it safe from the elements."

He fiddled with the packaging machine to cover his confusion over her form of address. He was not unused to being addressed as Uncle by most of his regular customers; but he would certainly have remembered if he'd met _this_ woman before.

On the other hand she was eerily familiar.

"Unifex asked me to give this to you," she said, handing him a memory card in the brand of a popular plaque manufacturer.

Later Rogi assumed he must have thanked the woman and seen her out of the shop, but surprise had erased all memory of it.

He did close up the shop, and the next few hours were spent listening to the message from his long, and possibly twice, dead relative.

### 

[ 1 ]

#### 

FROM THE MEMOIRS OF

#### 

MARC REMILLARD, 

#### 

THE ADVERSARY,

#### 

ANGEL OF THE ABYSS;

#### 

ATONING UNIFEX

It was mostly Creyn's idea; but I think both of our subconsiouses were searching for something like it.

"You could both continue Brede's work, you know"

Elizabeth demurred, "I think it's going to be rather up to Aiken and the Howlers; and two rather… controversial… personalities…"

     Abaddon and the Saint

"…are only going to make that job harder."

"You misunderstand me. Unity here is going, at best, to be a fleeting and small thing."

     You don't mean?

     He does. A kind of penance for me.

"The work you trained for, Elizabeth" Marc added; their mental conversation not unnoticed by the Tanu, "but on a scale beyond even that of _my_ wildest dreams."

     They might even know Unity, at least imperfectly.

     …

     You aren't still having doubts about Unity are you?

     Some. But fewer since. And I gave up Mental Man.

      _Affirmation_

### 

[ 2 ]

It took both of us in suited metaconcert to see as far as the Duat Galaxy. Indeed, yes there was an imperfect Unity; but with true maturity of the mind held back by the torcs, and black-torc culling out any advances to full operancy.

I spent weeks training Elizabeth in CE techniques; this wasn't going to be a simple game like when I let Aiken in the spare suit, and CE wasn't taught to any of the Milieu's operants since the Rebellion. At the time I still arrogantly thought enhancement had more benefits than downsides if used more conservatively than the Tanu did.

Elizabeth did comment that what we were doing was using a sledgehammer to try and save the Duat Galaxy from widespread use of nutcrackers.

Before we left we raised Creyn to operancy; and left him with the job Brede had dumped on Elizabeth. We also gave him a partial programme for Unity; even though we all knew that in the long run it would take 6 million years.

Seven giant steps it took; each worse than the one before. Brede's mitigant that allowed me to teleport you direct to Earth barely reducing the pain to a level where we didn't pass out. We filled the infinite space between the superfices with laughter and reminiscences of Denali though; and where we had left Earth as colleagues and in hope, we arrived friends in joy.

### 

[ 3 ]

We had agreed to make our first planetfall on Duat itself, where the ongoing reintegration of Tanu and Firvulag meant a higher background rate of operancy, and hence black-torc.

We were a seven day wonder, in fact we ran for the entire lunar cycle; first we were the exotic visitors claiming to be from another galaxy, then we had the tale of the missing exiles, then their scientists confirmed at least part of our story with genetic assays.

But when we started counselling a reduction in torc usage the media dropped us; and we had to start all over again from the beginning. It took us three years of persistent badgering before a single maternity ward was willing to let us work on a single case; and from there we slowly and patiently built up, raising individuals to torc-less operancy, until we finally had a platform of healed families to build upon.

Not that Duat was willing to abandon torcs even with that evidence; so we took small steps. With the aid of Elizabeth's redaction I was able to remember enough details to reproduce mechanical MPC assay devices; significantly reducing the rate of sub-optimal and fatal adjustment.

In our spare time we introduced Duat to the sports of fly-fishing and ballooning.

### 

[ 4 ]

In the first few centuries we made very little difference to the world mind; despite working every hour we safely could it was not possible for us to raise any significant number of children to operancy, and it wasn't until Grandmaster-class operants emerged that we could pass on our techniques to other minds.

We were content, though, in our great work. Every torcless child we saw was a life we'd saved; and every new operant was a measurable step towards our goal. Granted there were disasters where groups of parents insisted on giving their children their "destiny" despite our advice; and times when we laboured for weeks only to have a patient succumb to the black-torc. There were even cases where parents deliberately torced their child in order to get our redactive attentions.

But even where it was one step back it was two steps forward.

In the Duat Galaxy, as in the Milieu nowadays, no planet was an island, so it wasn't all that long before our mechanical techniques passed to other planets at least; and, once we had trained teams on Duat, so did they. We must have visited half the planets in the galaxy ourselves though before we were done.

### 

[ 5 ]

     Do you remember when we arrived here?

     [Image - Ships and Song]

     We dreaded how hard it would be, and rejoiced at how close they were

     We were wrong in both cases, but we persevered and it is done

     Now it is time to rest, are you sure you won't reconsider?

     No, dear love, I have my own ghosts to lay to rest back in our galaxy.

### 

[ 6 ]

An entire planet wept as Elizabeth passed on; mostly in happiness.

The rest of the tale you know.

Pray for us, Uncle Rogi, but do not mourn. We are content.

### 

[ The End ]


End file.
